Martin Freeman Reveals 'Sherlock' Season 4 Production Delay

We have bad news for fans who are anticipating the arrival of ‘Sherlock’ Season 4. Well, it’s not devastatingly earth-shattering bad news, but it is disappointing.

Martin Freeman has announced that the production of the fourth season will not start after his theatrical performance in ‘Richard III,’ because the scheduling for the show is “hard to do.”

Dr. John Watson -- I mean, Freeman -- broke the sad news during an interview with Digital Spy on April 18. The actor, when asked about a production schedule for ‘Sherlock,’ noted, “It’s very hard to get together. But it’s one of those things where you have to at some point just go, ‘We’re going to do it now’ -- otherwise we could be having this conversation in three years.”

Well, we can’t wait three years, especially since we know that the fourth and fifth seasons are already planned out as revealed by the show’s co-creator Steven Moffat. He elaborated at a recent BAFTA event, “The ideas we had that day, I thought were the best we've ever had.”

Not only did Moffat tease the ‘Sherlock’ fans by describing the fantastic ideas back in October, he announced that Benedict Cumberbatch and Freeman were essentially the ones who ordered the fourth season. Martin was quoted saying, “Yep, series four is happening.”

So, the verdict? The evidence points to good and bad news.

Good news: Season 4 will happen. Freeman is willing to wear Dr. Watsons’ pants once again. “There comes a time where you’ve got to p*** or get off the pot,” he added in the April interview.

Bad News: the p*** will not be at the end of the summer of 2014 when ‘Richard III’ ends its run, and ‘Sherlock’ fans will have to wait in anticipation.

Better news? Ultimately, the cast will solve the mystery of the busy schedule.